Him

★★.5

starring: tyriq withers, marlon wayans, julia fox, and jim jefferies

REVIEWER: Lyall carter

A young athlete descends into a world of terror when he's invited to train with a legendary champion whose charisma curdles into something darker.

Cameron Cade is a rising quarterback who suffers a potentially career-ending injury after being attacked by an unhinged fan. Just when all seems lost, Cam receives a lifeline when his hero, Isaiah White, offers to train him at an isolated compound. However, as the training accelerates, Isaiah's charisma turns into something darker, sending Cam down a disorienting rabbit hole that may cost him more than he ever bargained for.

The premise of Him, a sports horror film, is an extremely compelling one as there is a rich history of borderline maniac obsession from both athletes and team fans to draw on to begin with.

And Him begins with great promise, drawing us into this narrative labyrinth with enough hints from screaming, wild eyed, spitting fans to bizarrely bloodied training rituals to suggest there’s something other worldly and sinister going on here. This is punctuated with some truly gory moments that aren’t for the faint hearted.

All of this needs to come together with a crescendo of a final act. But unfortunately, they just don’t nail the landing here. No spoilers but we’ve kinda seen this thing before which could have worked if it had been delivered with a little more originality. Or even if the film makers had wanted to say something quite definitive about elite sports and the culture that surrounds it all that could have given Him the final touchdown.

While the premise of Him is intriguing unfortunately they don’t quite land the final act.